Hearse parade tries to warn Houston's young criminals

A grim parade to get city's attentionProcession of hearses meant to highlight growing youth violence

JENNIFER LATSON, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Published
5:30 am CDT, Monday, April 21, 2008

Members of a north Houston church watch as 17 hearses roll Sunday, a statement made by local undertakers.

Members of a north Houston church watch as 17 hearses roll Sunday, a statement made by local undertakers.

Photo: ERIC KAYNE, CHRONICLE

Photo: ERIC KAYNE, CHRONICLE

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Members of a north Houston church watch as 17 hearses roll Sunday, a statement made by local undertakers.

Members of a north Houston church watch as 17 hearses roll Sunday, a statement made by local undertakers.

Photo: ERIC KAYNE, CHRONICLE

Hearse parade tries to warn Houston's young criminals

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They stopped traffic on the highways. They turned heads in some of Houston's highest-crime neighborhoods. They made jaws drop at strip malls, bus stops and apartment complexes across the city.

Seventeen hearses in a row make a statement. On Sunday, that statement was intended for young people involved in violent crime.

Undertakers from 15 Houston funeral homes formed a procession Sunday evening that snaked along streets from West Montgomery to Homestead to Martin Luther King Boulevard to West Bellfort. It was an attempt to get the attention of the teens they say are forming a larger percentage of their clientele than before.

"We love our 100-year-olds, our 103-year-olds," said Ariana Harris, a funeral director for Mabrie Memorial Mortuary in Midtown. "Those are the families we want to serve. It's hard to see the kids."

Darris Fobbs works for Frazier-Mitchell Funeral Home on Hershe, where a double service will be held Saturday for two cousins who were killed Thursday night in a shooting police say was drug-related.

"There were eight people killed in two nights last week," Fobbs said. "It was happening so fast."

Fobbs drove a silver Cadillac hearse in Sunday's grim parade, bearing a sign that read "Positive Thinking." He followed his grandfather into the funeral business six years ago because, he said, he likes to comfort people during the most difficult moments of their lives. But even he is disturbed by the young bodies he sees.

Two in a week is not so uncommon for his funeral home, he said.

Fobbs examined the reactions of drivers and pedestrians he passed — the woman who clasped her hand over her mouth in the Foodarama parking lot, the bewildered looks from apartment balconies, the youth group that stood in front of their church and waved.

Fobbs knew every church and every cemetery — he's done services at most of them — and he recognized the blocks where violence has taken a heavy toll.

"We had a young guy get killed here," he said, pointing out a gas station near the corner of Lockwood and Crane. "He was trying to turn his life around, working here, and a guy who didn't like him came and shot him."

Not far away, the procession passed a car wash where teenage boys were buffing tricked-out cars. One teen, wearing a black tank top and thick gold chains, gestured angrily to his group of friends as the hearses rolled past.

"That's who we're trying to reach," Fobbs said. "We're just giving them a message: We're the undertakers. We don't want to see you at a young age, and if we do, don't come to us for something senseless, like a killing or a murder."

The procession's organizers hoped the shock of seeing 17 gleaming hearses in their neighborhood might make teenagers stop and think about the consequences of violence.

"If we can teach one person, that's enough," said Anthony Kay, the president of the funeral directors association. "A lot of people think that as funeral directors, we shouldn't say anything because this is our business. We just don't want to see this type of thing."

No funeral director wants to bury a teenager, he said.

"We can wait," he added. "Trust us, we can wait."

The funeral directors group formed a similar procession with limousines two years ago but used hearses for the first time on Sunday in hopes of making more of an impact.

"It's getting their attention," said Fobbs, as a ripple ran through a crowd of teens assembled along Martin Luther King Boulevard. "You can see, it's working."